1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vibratory flow meter, and more particularly, to a vibratory flow meter for determining one or more flow fluid characteristics of a multi-phase flow fluid.
2. Statement of the Problem
Vibratory flow meters, such as Coriolis mass flow meters and vibratory densitometers, typically operate by detecting motion of a vibrating conduit that contains a flowing or non-flowing fluid. Properties associated with the material in the conduit, such as mass flow, density and the like, can be determined by processing measurement signals received from motion transducers associated with the conduit. The vibration modes of the vibrating material-filled system generally are affected by the combined mass, stiffness and damping characteristics of the containing conduit and the material contained therein.
A typical vibratory flow meter includes one or more conduits that are connected inline in a pipeline or other transport system and convey material, e.g., fluids, slurries and the like, in the system. A conduit may be viewed as having a set of natural vibration modes, including for example, simple bending, torsional, radial, and coupled modes. In a typical measurement application, a conduit is excited in one or more vibration modes as a material flows through the conduit and motion of the conduit is measured at points spaced along the conduit. Excitation is typically provided by an actuator, e.g., an electromechanical device, such as a voice coil-type driver, that perturbs the conduit in a periodic fashion. Fluid density may be obtained by determining a resonant frequency of the flow fluid. Mass flow rate may be determined by measuring time delay or phase differences between motions at the transducer locations. Two such transducers (or pickoff sensors) are typically employed in order to measure a vibrational response of the flow conduit or conduits, and are typically located at positions upstream and downstream of the actuator. The two pickoff sensors are connected to electronic instrumentation by cabling, such as by two independent pairs of wires. The instrumentation receives signals from the two pickoff sensors and processes the signals in order to derive a mass flow rate measurement.
Flow meters are used to perform mass flow rate and/or density measurements for a wide variety of fluid flows and offer high accuracy for single phase flows. One area in which vibratory flow meters are used is in the metering of oil and gas well outputs. The product of such wells can comprise a multi-phase flow, including liquids but also including gases and/or solids that can be entrained in the flow fluid. An oilfield flow fluid therefore can include oil, water, air or other gases, and/or sand or other soil particulates, for example. However, when a vibratory flow meter is used to measure flow fluids including entrained gases and/or solids, the accuracy of the meter can be significantly degraded. It is highly desirable that the resulting metering be as accurate as possible, even for such multi-phase flows.
The multi-phase flow fluids can include entrained gases, especially bubbly gas flows. The multi-phase flows can include entrained solids or entrained solid particles, mixtures such as concrete, etc. Further, multi-phase flows can include liquids of different densities, such as water and petroleum components, for example. The phases may have different densities, viscosities, or other properties.
In a multi-phase flow, the vibration of a flow conduit does not necessarily move the entrained gases/solids completely in phase with the flow fluid. This vibrational anomaly is referred to as decoupling or slippage. Gas bubbles, for example, can become decoupled from the flow fluid, affecting the vibrational response and any subsequently derived flow characteristics. Small bubbles typically move with the flow fluid as the flow meter is vibrated. However, larger bubbles do not move with the flow fluid during vibration of the flow conduit. Instead, the bubbles can be decoupled from the flow fluid and can move independently, with entrained gas bubbles moving farther and faster than the flow fluid during each vibrational movement. This adversely affects the vibrational response of the flowmeter. This is also true of solid particles entrained in the flow fluid, where the solid particles are increasingly likely to decouple from the motion of the flow fluid at increasing particle sizes or vibrational frequencies. The decoupling may even occur where the multi-phase flow includes liquids of differing densities and/or viscosities. The decoupling action has been found to be affected by various factors, such as the viscosity of the flow fluid and the difference in density between the flow fluid and the foreign material, for example.
In addition to problems caused by the relative motion of bubbles and particles, Coriolis meters can experience accuracy degradation from speed of sound (SOS), or compressibility, effects when the sonic velocity of the measurement fluid is low or the oscillation frequency of the meter is high. Liquids have higher sonic velocities than gases, but the lowest velocities result from a mixture of the two. Even a small amount of gas entrained in a liquid results in a dramatic reduction in the speed of sound of the mixture, below that of either phase.
The oscillation of the flow tube produces sound waves that oscillate in the transverse direction at the drive frequency of the meter. When the speed of sound of the fluid is high, as in a single phase fluid, the first acoustic mode for transverse sound waves across the circular conduit is at a much higher frequency than the drive frequency. However, when the speed of sound drops due to the addition of gas to a liquid, the frequency of the acoustic mode also drops. When the frequency of the acoustic mode and the drive mode are close, meter errors result due to the off-resonance excitation of the acoustic mode by the drive mode.
For low frequency meters and typical process pressures, velocity of sound effects are present in multiphase flows but are usually negligible with respect to the specified accuracy of the meter. However, for high frequency Coriolis meters operating at low pressures with bubbly fluids, the velocity of sound can be low enough to cause significant measurement errors due to interaction between the drive and fluid vibration modes.
The size of the bubbles can vary, depending on the amount of gas present, the pressure of the flow fluid, temperature, and the degree of mixing of the gas into the flow fluid. The extent of the decrease in performance is not only related to how much total gas is present, but also to the size of the individual gas bubbles in the flow. The size of the bubbles affects the accuracy of the measurement. Larger bubbles occupy more volume and decouple to a further extent, leading to fluctuations in the density and measured density of the flow fluid. Due to the compressibility of a gas, the bubbles can change in gas amount, or mass, yet not necessarily change in size. Conversely, if the pressure changes, the bubble size can correspondingly change, expanding as the pressure drops or shrinking as the pressure increases. This can also cause variations in the natural or resonant frequency of the flow meter.
Prior art vibratory flow meters are typically designed for operating frequencies around 100 to 300 Hertz (Hz), with some meters operating at frequencies between 500 and 1,000 Hz. The operating frequency in a prior art vibratory flow meter is typically chosen in order to facilitate the flow meter design, production, and operation. For example, a prior art vibratory or Coriolis flow meter is configured to be physically compact and substantially uniform in dimensions. For example, a height of a prior art flow meter is typically less than the length, giving a low height-to-length aspect ratio (H/L) and a corresponding high drive frequency. Flow meter users prefer a small overall size so that installation is simplified. Further, flow meter design commonly assumes a uniform, single-phase fluid flow and is designed to optimally operate with such a uniform flow fluid.
In the prior art, flow meters typically have a low height-to-length aspect ratio (H/L). A straight conduit flow meter has a height-to-length aspect ratio of zero, which typically produces a high drive frequency. Bowed flow conduits are often used to keep the length from being the dominant dimension and will increase the height-to-length aspect ratio (H/L). However, prior art flow meters are not designed with high aspect ratios. A curved or bowed conduit flow meter in the prior art may have a height-to-length aspect ratio approaching 1.3, for example.
There remains a need in the art for a vibratory flow meter that is capable of accurately and reliably measuring multi-phase flow fluids.